Friday, September 2, 2011

Boehner Does it Right on Obama Speech

Earlier this week, President Obama attempted to invite himself to speak to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, September 7th. Wednesday night, Speaker of the House John Boehner respectfully said no. It was the Speaker's right to do so, and Obama unfortunately cannot do a thing about it.

As Speaker of the House, John Boehner has the sole authority to invite a President to address Congress. The President may not demand to speak to Congress, he may only ask. Further, a joint resolution by both houses of Congress must be adopted to issue such an invite. Since Congress comes back into session on the 7th, there isn't enough time to adopt such a resolution.

I've been a tough critic of Speaker Boehner's since Republicans took over Congress, but this time I have to say he did right by the Republican Party and by conservatism. For the record, here is the letter:

What the Speaker did was respectfully, but firmly, tell Obama to stick it. And, as I said yesterday, Obama deserved it. The President tried to treat Congress and the GOP with zero respect by trying to schedule this speech for the 7th, and Boehner just turned the game back around on him and did it better.

Furthermore, and I can't say for sure if this was intentional, now Obama's speech is going to be up against the NFL Season Opener, which is by the waying being carried by NBC. So now NBC will have to rework it's schedule plans. There was only a slight chance that Obama giving the same speech for the hundredth time was going to garner better ratings than the GOP debate, but I guarantee you he doesn't have a snowball's chance in July of getting more viewers than the NFL opener.

Obama was playing politics, and Speaker Boehner wouldn't play by Obama's ridiculous rules. Good for you, Mr. Speaker. This round goes to you, and this time I salute you. You've done well.